14 DAY TRIAL // Captain America is an American super-hero. So is Giant Man and the Hulk. When Mark Millar teamed them up in the first Volume of The Ultimates, patriots rioted. Not against any of these super-heroes, but against Millar's "it's all fu*kin' political" subtext.
And yes, indeed, there were many disturbing things on display in the comics Millar brilliantly created: conspiracy theories, Thor (a Nordic super-hero who looked like a muscled hybrid of Brad Pitt and Jesus and who was totally against the American way of dealing with big security and peace issues).
There was also a rescued-from-a-half-century hibernation Captain America, who just didn't quite fit in the 21st century, there was domestic violence (between the Giant Man and The Witch), there was injustice (as Hulk, the real savior, is imprisoned by his own team that forced him become Hulk again) and above all there was the "Hiroshima and Nagasaki were inhabited by evil aliens" thing that, said in a country where the Holocaust and the victims of 9/11 are constantly commemorated, was just so terribly WRONG.
But let's just go with the freedom of speech approach of the issue and not blame or point the finger. Because more severe things are at stake in the second volume of Ultimates saga. Millar's action packed up take place in a parallel universe, where everything looks just like today's America.
With the only difference that? "Bush's second term prompts him to get a little more ambitious with his foreign policy and the remit for these superheroes, and so he decides to start using what he calls Persons Of Mass Destruction," as the author declares.
Just add to this very grim "what if..." some extra spice and totally contemporary matters and topics such as death penalty, lack of trust, mass protests, huge little white lies... It kinda feels, sounds and looks like every up to date super-heroes material. Especially when the team goes to illegal and bloody missions to third world countries. Things are just too familiar.
The updates are not only politically and P.R-wise accurate (the "let's do and say we didn't" policy that alienates the Administration for more and more American citizens and increases the overall bad public image of the country and hatred level outside it), but the characters themselves are modified and decayed: the brave and potent Captain America is reduced to an old fashioned man that can't keep a relationship with his girlfriend, the Hulk has to be executed to satisfy the public's need of a scapegoat, Thor starts riots and protests against the team he had formally been a part of, the media coverage of facts is strictly manipulation and huge lies, Hawkeye's wife and kids are murdered. Everything falls apart and the severe traumas that everyone suffers, the team members fighting other team members and humiliating them (just because they don't share or agree on the enthusiasm towards supporting the military actions). Paranoia, suspicion and treason are just around the corner.
But we should be thankful for Mark Millar's comics. Because what he offers us is a much needed mirror that reflects just how America appears to the rest of the world: corrupted by hypocrisy, degenerated, always willing to fight and never giving too much of a damn about the aftermaths, collaterals and prices other people pay for their fighting. It might be sad, but it's also true.
